Photos From Last Night
by the girl with poor judgement
Summary: A little bit more than a drabble, written for a photo prompt on the PR drabble meme. The morning after a New Directions 'schools out' party, Rachel finds herself tagged in a facebook picture. It's not what she expects.


**A/N:** I've suffered from a bad case of Writers block in the past couple of months/weeks. I was going to finish 'A look to the future', but I deleted my account on the computer which lost all of my files (even though I did click 'save files'). Anyway, I don't think I'll get back to writing it so, I'm sorry to those who were looking forward to it :{! Sincerly.

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><p>She lay on her bed face down, buried in her over-fluffed pillows as she wallowed away, head ready to explode and stomach totally unsettled. It was a bad idea to accept a drink handled by Santana, and it was even worse to accept (or steal) those last few Jagerbombs that Puckerman was passing around. The house was completely silent, bar the annoying tick tick tick of the clock that hung on her bedroom wall, getting louder so it seemed with each passing second. She didn't know where her Dad's were, but she was glad they weren't here to see her like this: hung over, looking and feeling like death. Squeezing her eyes tightly shut, the banging in her head stopped for what seemed like a second, before a thunderous buzzing against her side table echoed through the room. With a groan she flew her arm out and grabbed randomly for her cell phone which was no doubt the source of the buzzing, tipping over canisters of hairspray and body spray as she did, which caused even more noise.<p>

Shifting her body and turning her head so it rest sideways against the pillow, she squinted at the bright white light that shone through her dark room, Kurt's name lit up in bold black font, underneath: messages (3)

'Where did you go? Txt if you're home safe', was the first

'Good morning! Just checking you're okay 2day. Txt back Xx' was the second.  
>She smirked weakly at his concern but ignored his request and continued onto the final message.<p>

'Check Facebook. Now!'

Confused, she dragged herself up into a sitting position and looked across to the mirror on the dressing table, that was opposite the end of her bed. Her hair was mussed, and her eye makeup smudged, it didn't seem too bad: until she noticed a hickey, in what looked like, the shape of a sharp adorning her neck. Running a finger across it gently she winced and groaned, hoping she hadn't done something stupid with Finn. They'd broken up the day earlier, it was for the best Rachel had convinced herself, but there was an inkling of doubt in the back of her head. That mixed with alcohol was bound to have terrible consequences.

It seemed like forever waiting for her laptop to load, and when she opened Facebook she was met with 23 notifications: not exactly the number she was used to seeing, which was zero. Apparently she was tagged in some photo, which everyone seemed to be interested in. Her stomach churned, and she swallowed nervously; desperate to see how much she'd made a fool of herself. The photos were uploaded by Mercedes, so she knew no matter how embarrassing and how much she begged, they were not getting deleted.

Upon seeing the photo she heaved a sigh of relief, it was just a dark picture of Artie balancing a cup on his head. She smirked, then pushed back the screen of her laptop and gasped in horror at what was revealed. In the background, there she stood on her tiptoes, arms wrapped around the neck of one Noah Puckerman who was leaning her against the door with that devilishly handsome smirk on his face as their lips touched. And from the looks of the grin she was wearing, she was enjoying it too. Rachel groaned at the picture, memories from the night before becoming clearer in her mind. 

The party was being held in Santana's pool house, of course it wasn't big enough for a massive blow-out event, but it was big enough for the glee club and space to dance which. A week earlier, Rachel wasn't even sure she'd be allowed to attend, after Santana blamed she and Finn for ruining their chances at winning Nationals. But a few words from Brittany had managed to change her mind. Brittany seemed to be good at persuading people, Rachel was reluctant at first to even go to the gathering, but how could anybody say no to a pouting Brittany?

The beginning of the party was awkward, and slow. They all drifted about, hugging their plastic cups or bottles close to them, huddling together in groups of two to chat amongst themselves. Kurt had brought Blaine along with him, of course, so Rachel stuck with the two of them. Actually, Blaine was becoming a good friend of hers, mainly because every time she spent time with Kurt, he was there (not that she minded at all). As the alcohol began to flow and the music got louder, she found herself having more fun and actually forgetting that the club probably still disliked her. When they were sober, at least.

Then Finn walked in with his hands stuffed in his pockets and shoulders hunched as he moped about, making small talk with Sam and Mercedes who, Rachel had noticed, always seemed to be near each other recently. Her eyes followed him as he moved across the room, and then he turned. He was looking over, eyes cutting through her from the other side of the room. Her heart quickened, nervous to what he would do next. He did nothing but turn his back on her, she hoped it wouldn't hurt as much as it did, she was used to him turning his back on her. It felt the same.

So when Puck swaggered past with a handful of drinks, she was first to snatch one from him. And when Lauren suggested shots, she was there in a heartbeat. Needless to say what happened when Blaine suggested a drinking game.

The night grew on and by 1:30am the party had died down. Gleeks were crashing on the floors, the music no longer pop hits but chill music. Quinn had fallen asleep against Mercedes who was giggling quietly with Artie at Sam's Arnold Schwarzenegger impression, a camera hanging off a strap around her wrist. Blaine was stood in a corner dancing still as Kurt sat (sober) in a deck chair, making sure the Warbler didn't hurt himself, and the others were either talking shit to each other or making out, at least in Tina and Mikes case. It seemed everybody was grouped up, and then she saw Puck stood by the window looking out into the dark, swaying to the music. Rachel smirked and hopped over, startling him as she squeezed his sides and wrapped her arms around him from behind,

"You're drunk," she slurred, giggling and leaning against him, a half empty plastic cup in her grip. He smirked, turning to face her and slinging an arm around her waist to keep her up right, helping her to the couch.

"Nuh-uh, you're drunk," he countered. And he was right, two wine coolers and one vodka and coke down, and she was high as a kite. Puck was driving, so he'd had only one beer at the beginning of the night, and was spending the rest of it nursing a glass of coke and nibbling on chips and nuts that had been set out. Rachel giggled again resting her head against his shoulder, watching as Finn danced with more grace than when he was sober.

'Do you think I made the right choice?' Puck, already looking at her, furrowed his brow and pouted in confusion, 'Breaking up with him,' she added quickly. He shrugged and dropped his hands casually into his lap,

'I guess so,' he started, causing her to lift her head and look at him, eyes wide and expectant for his answer. 'You're sorta too good for Finn. You got all these big dreams, and all he wants to do is stay here. I dunno. Plus he's kind of an idiot,' Rachel gasped, smacking his arm playfully, 'What? Any guy to let you go is an idiot,"

'You let me go,' she pointed out. He sighed before smacking his lips and nodding,

'Well, you know I'm an idiot,' to this she lifted her head and looked to him with soft, sad eyes,

'You're not an idiot, Noah.'

They watched each other for a moment, a genuine smile tugging desperately at the corner of his lips. He turned away quickly, trying to avoid eye contact with Finn who was unsubtly watching them from the corner. Puck pulled her into a sideward hug, muttering to her,

'You made the right choice, Rach. You deserve a guy better than Finn,' He heard her sigh in content and felt her head resume its place against his shoulder, fingers curling around the inside of his bicep and squeezing it lightly,

'Are you sure you're not drunk?' she smiled, and he chuckled back. Planting a quick peck against her temple. They sat there for a while, both watching Kurt pry Blaine away from a decorative plant that he was dancing with as Tina and Mike fell next to them in a heated embrace. Tina landed on the couch seat next to them, and Mike practically squeezed between her and Puck to get next to her, his foot jabbing into Noah's thigh.

Rolling his eyes, he muttered to Rachel to follow him, leaving her with no choice but to follow as he took her hand and guided past Artie who was attempting to balance a number of things atop his head. He guided her towards the dark corridor that lead towards an already occupied toilet, keeping them in the shadows for a bit of privacy.

She didn't know why she did it and she knew it wasn't her best idea, but that didn't stop her. As soon as they were outside the doorway she leaned onto her tiptoes she rest her palms on his chest she pressed a kiss to his lips. Without any encouragement he rest his hands on her hips and hooked his thumbs through the belt loops of her skirt, deepening the kiss. Finally she pulled away and gazed up to him with her deep brown eyes, nipping her bottom lip nervously waiting for what he had to say,

'Your face tastes awesome,' he whispered, mimicking her in a nasally and inaccurate impression of her voice. Rachel shook her head laughing, wrapping her arms around his neck when he swooped down and caught her with another kiss. Oblivious to the flash of Mercedes camera.

The comments she couldn't face reading, so slammed the lid down. Brushing the long strands of hair that fell in her face as she whinged in pain at the noise. The screen of her phone lit up, illuminating another name: Noah. Grabbing it she flipped the top and hurried to read what he had to say. After reading, she fell back against her pillow, eyes closed with a smile from ear to ear.

"I've got a new screen saver" was all it read. 


End file.
